Frenzel wins PCR in Falun with hill record

14 March 2014 18:23

Frenzel takes the PCR also in Falun -

FIS/Silke Tegethof

Eric Frenzel is simply unstoppable on the jumping hill. The overall World Cup winner of the season 2013/14 gave his competitors no chance once more and won the Provisional Competition Round with a new hill record of 99.5 metres. He was closely followed by Olympic silver medallist Akito Watabe from Japan who jumped 98 metres and with 127.4 points, this meant a time behind of only two seconds on the cross-country track. Third on the intermediate result list was Norwegian Thomas Kjelbotn who continues to move up into the top jumpers of the field. He set 94.5 metres and with 126.3 points, this means a time behind of seven seconds for the cross-country race.

Behind the intermediate leader, Jason Lamy Chappuis was back among the top jumpers on rank five and with 18 seconds of time behind, he will go on the track together with Austrian Willi Denifl who came in as fourth, 14 seconds behind Frenzel. Serial winner Johannes Rydzek was prying on the competition from a promising seventh rank, 21 seconds behind his teammate Frenzel, the same starting time as Bernhard Gruber on rank eight. Strong jumpers Yoshito Watabe, Evgeniy Klimov and Haavard Klemetsen claimed ranks six, nine and ten.

In terms of the strong skiers, a fast group consisting of Magnus Moan, Alessandro Pittin and Joergen Graabak had time disadvantage of 44, 46 and 49 seconds respectively and are expected to be quite dangerous for the podium spots should the PCR have to be used tomorrow.

In difficult wind conditions, a number of athletes also did not make it through the qualification. Among the unlucky ones were Miroslav Dvorak and Sebastien Lacroix as well as Tomas Slavik, Tim Hug, Christoph Bieler and Fabian Rießle.